Interior secretary sees election meddling

United States warns again about Russian interference in presidential election

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Saturday, February 3, 2018

The Interior Secretary has acknowledged that there are signs of foreign interference in this year’s presidential election following warnings by government officials in the United States.

Alfonso Navarrete Prida stated in an interview yesterday that there were “signs of foreign intervention . . . in relation to electoral affairs or support groups. We must be very careful in this regard and discern the truth; that’s the process we’re in.”

The secretary’s remarks came after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the Mexican government earlier in the day to pay attention to signs of Russian interference as Mexico prepares to elect a new president July 1.

Tillerson arrived in Mexico City yesterday, the first stop on a Latin American tour.

“We hear this from our European counterparts,” he said about signs of Russian meddling in elections. “My advice would be . . . pay attention to what’s happening.”

U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said earlier this month there was evidence of Russian meddling in the Mexican election.

He said there was a “sophisticated effort to polarize democratic societies and pit communities within those societies against each other.”

Interior Secretary Navarrete suggested that if the U.S. government had such information it should be shared with Mexico “so we can verify it.”

Warnings of such meddling have generated speculation that leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador would benefit. The leader of the Morena party has rejected the notion and yesterday the Russian ambassador did the same.

Eduard Malayán told El Universal the accusations were part of a dirty war intended to damage relations between Mexico and Russia and emphatically denied them.